The Australian Christian Lobby will email 100,000 people the views of their local candidates on marriage in the lead-up to the election.

ACL Managing Director Lyle Shelton said he had emailed ALP and Coalition candidates and as many minor party candidates as possible seeking their views.

“We will be doing our best to let as many people as possible know where their local candidate stands.

“We will be urging people to vote for a candidate, regardless of party affiliation, who will support upholding the definition of marriage,” Mr Shelton said.

“Changing marriage does not have to be inevitable and the election is an opportunity for people to make their views known in the privacy of the polling booth.”

In the past 11 months, same-sex marriage bills had been defeated in the Federal, Tasmanian and South Australian parliaments.

Mr Shelton said the Australian Christian Lobby supported the Rudd Government’s removal in 2008 of invidious discrimination against same-sex couples and was pleased two parliamentary inquiries found there was no practical discrimination in Australian law against same-sex couples.

“There is no reason to change the definition of marriage," he said.

“Changing the definition of marriage means we are saying as a society that marriage between a man and a woman is no longer an ideal nor an essential building block for raising children to know the love and nurture of their biological parents.

“This is a radical change in our social norms and one that should not be undertaken lightly.